Tracking company AdDuplex has given the first real indication of how fast the latest Windows 10 update is being rolled out. The answer is fast. Really fast.
In the absence of concrete figures from Microsoft, the independent ad tracking network shows the Windows 10 April 2018 Update on 50 per cent of Windows 10 installations a …

Re: "reflects perhaps misplaced confidence"

Absolutely.

We launched our new free product in stores by requiring everyone going into the store to take one before they were allowed in. And for those who told us to **** off, we broke into their houses later on and replaced their existing functioning products with our 'better' version. We've got amazing market share now! Must be because we have a great new product.

Re: "reflects perhaps misplaced confidence"

Re: "reflects perhaps misplaced confidence" @fandom

I am one of the other 50% who, (every time I switch it on which is not often), get a message saying "Windows would like to do an upgrade but has found no space - please clear some space on your C: drive"

Unfortunately, being a cloud based laptop, there is no space to gain since the only things installed on C: are Windows10 and Garmin Express. My other partition (the original Win Recovery) has Xubuntu, and 60,000 apps including the full LibreOffice suite and still has 3GB to spare - and I am not giving any to MSBloatware.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Windows 10 seems to have had a lot of problems. I don't remember Windows 7 being so difficult. I only run it in a VM but it seems pretty stable.

The most recent Windows 10 release was a pig. A friend of mine spent some considerable time trying to find out why she could no longer scan using her Samsung/HP All-in-One. Eventually HP's support admitted that the scanner driver was broken by the Windows 10 Update.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

XP had teething problems but things stabilized after the first service pack. Then XP SP2 became the 'gold standard', and for a long time was the ubiquitous compatibility standard. So much so that later Windows versions had built-in 'XP mode' for compatibility with legacy programs.

XP to Vista was the problematic phase, mainly due to drivers and the hardware manufacturers couldn't release Vista-compatible drivers in time.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

I've had pretty good luck with Windows 10, as long as I don't install any applications or try to use Edge or Internet Explorer.

The really big problem is the short support cycle for Windows. Complex software, especially the vertical software applications, can take many months to certify for the operating system and server OS's so they may be obsolete on non-functioning before release because of of the frequent "feature updates" and rapid drop of support of each release.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

If Microsoft is smart, it should consider making Windows open source.

New machines from OEMs already have a licensed copy of Windows preinstalled. Enterprises are already required by law to use only licensed copies of business software, including Windows. There should be no concern about a loss of revenue.

By allowing the core components of Windows to be open source, it'll help to create unofficial 'bare bones' forked editions of Windows which is fully legacy-compatible, with a sprinkling of unique aesthetics and a selection of features envisioned by the developers. Maybe include the sentimental stuff e.g. wallpapers, tada sound and classic Minesweeper.

You get 'distros' of Windows. The enthusiasts use them for the legacy/DOS stuff, without being forced to seek out a copy and install some edition of Windows that's 10-20+ years old.

The cutting edge features, and official support and updates, are only for the licensed copies of Windows.

This also helps Microsoft to chart its own path ahead with Windows 10, without being overly distracted by legacy and backward compatibility.

Still, I think Microsoft should emulate Apple's OSX release cycle and pricing. Do a final Win 10 grand update (Service Pack style), say, in 2019. So, Win 10 RTM + SP 2019 = Win 10.1. Only bug fixes and 'maintenance mode' updates thereafter. Then a few years later, release Win 10.2; those upgrading from 10.1 have to pay a smaller amount of money. A few years later, Win 10.3. And so on.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

By allowing the core components of Windows to be open source, it'll help to create unofficial 'bare bones' forked editions of Windows which is fully legacy-compatible

This contradicts your initial in two ways: firstly, the unofficial versions would either be licensable, in which case they would compete with revenue; or not, which would make them useless for most users. Anyway, adding stupid UX shit to Windows has been common practice by OEMs for years.

More sense might be to open source the kernel, like Apple has done with Darwin. But seeing as Microsoft did make the whole source code available to selected users und the "shared code" initiative, it might be a bit moot as to whether this would be beneificial.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Plenty of issues going from XP to 7

Not something I commented on, I was referring to updates over the lifecycle of the OS. Anyway, strictly it was XP to VIsta, which told you your hardware wasn't good enough, to 7. If the hardware was good enough for Vista abysmal presentation manager then 7 should have been a breeze.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Eventually HP's support admitted that the scanner driver was broken by the Windows 10 Update.

Let me fix that for you...

"Eventually HO's support passed the buck and blamed Microsoft"

you see, there is the right way to code drivers, the wrong way to code drivers and coding drivers that fit within the guidelines for 100% compatibility with windows.

Devs have a habit of taking shortcuts to get a piece of code out the door on time instead of properly. They plan to fix it sometime soon in an update, but quite often they don't get around to fixing it and hope nobody notices that they screwed it up in the first place.

Windows update comes along and it will fix some bit of bad code that some previous MS dev strung together after a hard night of drinking and womanising. playing D&D and binge watching TBBT. and inadvertently breaking a bit of code from some third party who was not following the rules.

This happened a few years ago with I think it was windows 7 service pack 2. when lots of software was using a non standard way of reading from memory. The same loophole was being used by miscreants so Microsoft decided to close the hole. Devs were given months and months to update code so that windows update would not break their code. Some fixed it, but plenty did not and charged companies lots of money to fix software they blamed for Microsoft breaking....

Re: They say history pounds a C into Sharp note.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Windows update comes along and it will fix some bit of bad code…

Drivers have had to be signed since Vista so the old excuse of blaming developer isn't really available. For the customer it doesn't really who broke what but that something is broken. If this was because developers did something that they could get away with then Microsoft is just as much as fault for making this possible in the first place and presumably not by documenting correctly and signing the driver.

I suspect security versus is at the basis of this particular issue, as it is for so many.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

XP and everything after still has the NT spaghetti-code kernel

NT's kernel wasn't that bad until they decided to put all the drivers in it so that it would run faster on x86 hardware rather than get Intel to make better chips. Still, it's not the kernel that's the problem but the multitude of APIs they've added, changed and broken over the years.

Re: They say history repeats itself.

>archaic code

But but...

Have you not been paying attention? Every Windows version since Vista has come with a proud pre-release MS blurb announcing to world and dog that its patching subsystem has indergone a major rewrite and will henceforth require a lot fewer reboots.

Nothing to see here...

My Surface upgraded just fine. My wife's crappy old ACER failed. It's failed to get any major updates for months due to crappy old Acer display drivers.

So I thought I'd try one more time before converting the Acer to a boat anchor. I removed AVG Business Security and told the update to go ahead. All went in just fine. Odd that removing the AV worked for her, but was never a problem in the first place for me.

Any Windows-only programs I need run fine in WINE, and I still have VirtualBox in reserve, though I've never needed it.

All the other programs I need are either multi-platform or have data compatible equivalents. I've not run Microsoft Office on a computer of mine for at least a decade (OpenOffice, then LibreOffice). Dragging files back and forth between my machines and work just translates seamlessly, or not if you decline conversion. Modernish Office recognizes Open Document files and will read and write them, and LibreOffice will write Office 97 versions for people way behind the update curve.

Re: 100% got the upgrade, only 50% have made it through.

I wonder which half my colleague belonged to. Close to the end of the week day on Tuesday he said to me that his laptop is installing an update since 9 a.m. I went to see the progress and found it displaying a message that it is uninstalling an update. I haven't asked him since whether the laptop left the time loop of eternal install, uninstall, install...

Re: New Title

"Accompanied by the usual 'This will take a few moments. Do not switch off your computer' message."

Ah, Microsoft Time. A random number raised by a random number to the power of another random number, updated on an irregular basis... Three minutes to go, two, one, 30 seconds, 10 hours, pack a torch and a sweater because the sun will go out first, done !

Imagine a Doctor Who episode that referred to Microsoft Time. The Earth is surrounded by a Dalek invasion fleet, and as usual the bad guys announce their intentions in advance...

AT-TEN-TION, HU-MANS ! WE WILL DESTROY YOUR PLANET IN THREE OF YOUR MICROSOFT MINUTES !

Three days later, they'd scuttle off, muttering BUGGER THIS, AT LEAST THE CYBERMEN HAVE INTERNAL CLOCKS THAT KEEP REGULAR TIME !

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

I"ve mentioned it before. Trying to keep it succinct...

Basically, since Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, Microsoft has to keep 'polishing the turd' with every major update pretending it's 'innovation' and something brand new. Cramming in frivolous features and cosmetic changes.

Consequently, there is no stability in the code. Unlike back in the day when every subsequent service pack resulted in a much stabler Windows.

Microsoft isn't competing with anyone... it's trying to be all things to all people: gaming, enterprise, cloud, Skype, Linkedin. Bing, Surface. There is no focus. Windows 10 (like its predecessor Windows 8) attempts to blur the line between a click-centric desktop OS, and touch-centric mobile OS.

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

I don't think MS wants to be in the OS business at all anymore. It's not about making a new OS to come later... if anything, it's about laying the groundwork for the eventual exit strategy, but only after the Windows-using public has been milked for every dime it's worth. Can't let the asset that is their Windows monopoly just wither away, right? Have to liquidate that asset before they cut Windows loose and become a cloud company (only).

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

So if this is the last Windoze, does that mean M$ are working on a Totally New OS?

They've probably finally woken up to the fact that Windoze is now just a poor proprietary client for a Unix world. They lost the fight. They couldn't compete with "free" and "open". The wold's web servers run Linux or BSD. Even Apple use BSD below their shiny stuff. It's Game Over for the worst- written computer game ever!

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

You could equally ask why Sky/Rupert Murdoch charge a subscription and yet still force advertising down their customers thoats.

The answer is that there is no level of financial return that will satisfy them nor any depth they are unwilling the plumb.

That their customers continue to pay them is evidence that they deserve all that they get, given the negative impact these companies have on the whole market including those people who step back form the BS rather than wallow in it.

As to "strange windows errors" seemingly appearing in order to coerce their users into a MS approved behaviour then the company has form, that you are still using them says that you deserve it all.

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

What i really cannot fathom is why is Microsoft continuing to build new versions, with new features, later to be removed, at least twice per year, when they already have the revenue from this version by selling your data ???.

It's still Beta obviously and the users are the testers. The real question is "Is Win10 really the last version? If so, when is the next MS OS coming out?". New OS = New Shitstorm and new revenue.

Re: What Is The Point For Continued OS Redesign/Updates

They have to keep putting new features into Windows 10 to justify calling it a new release each time. The features are not the reason for the releases; the releases are the reason for the features. That's why the features they've added are so inane and banal... it doesn't matter what they are, as far as MS is concerned. They're just some trash MS threw in so they would have something to put on the press release describing all the new shinies you get. They hope that everyone will focus on the new shinies instead of the more sinister changes.

The fast cadence of the update schedule provides MS with many opportunities to try out various experimental methods of squeezing even more money out of customers and seeing just how far they can be pushed. Let them get used to the last batch of bad stuff, then hit them with the next round in six months. If the goal is to do that to your own customers, Windows as a Service is the perfect system with which to do it, and it's the only way it makes any sense at all.

A machine that has been working for months with no problems starts having BSOD problems, installing the latest build mysteriously fixes it. Anyone would think Microsoft are doing it on purpose.

Well, I have the opposite on one of my boxes ... system worked fine for months, then with 1803 it does not like waking from sleep, I tell ya! 1/3 it freezes even before I see the MS spinning balls ... this is one of the better new features in 1803^H4^H5 ... because I can get to Linux quicker ;-)

Inference of user motive highly questionable

I suspect that of the 50% who got upgraded, a very small percentage actively thought "I want the upgrade". More likely that that's the proportion who don't know or don't care how to stop the default upgrading. The other side of the coin is that the other half of the user base has actively disabled updates due to having being burned by a problem caused by one, or an awareness that update borkage keeps happening, so that they're not willing to risk it, at least until no news stories have appeared reporting all the problems with the latest one (a situation that has not yet happened)

This is a huge proportion of the user base that is now at different version numbers, and by being so cavaliet about the problems that have been caused by breaking when updating, Microsoft now finds itself yet again in a position with its' Windows user base stuck on all sorts of different OS version numbers, the exact scenario that this whole process was explicitly meant to avoid.

The dark side of rolling releases

One thing which I have always liked about Windows was that you'd get the big new version (WinXP, Win7) and any issues with it would be ironed out with service packs and patches. The result would be a better version of the original. The current version of Windows 7 which I am using on my systems is a better version of the Windows 7 which I originally started using in 2009.

I also don't have to worry about a next big upgrade breaking anything or changing anything fundamental about the way the OS works (UI or API level).

During the time that I used Windows 10 on a work laptop (Lenovo Thinkpad T470p), I found myself struggling with an OS that was somewhat like the Windows which I was used to, but also beset with issues (configuring IME input is either half-broken, or I have to RTFM) and the limited options for Windows Update meant that other than deferring updates I had to suffer through poorly timed automatic reboots.

A few rolling releases later, I had a Windows 10 that had gotten more features shovelled into it (admittedly WSL is slick), but which mostly still felt half-formed and incomplete. This also isn't going to get any better, as each year's update(s) has to be seen as a new OS release, according to Microsoft.

I'm not sure I could commit myself to more of this mayhem that comes with this, other than maybe opting for the Enterprise version (in so far as it's available...) and hopping from LTS to LTS version by the time its support lifespan runs out.

This basically makes it very easy to just stick with boring ol' Windows 7 until 2020 (and beyond?) instead and miss out on all the exciting fun that Windows 10 brings.

This makes me sad, because Windows has been my primary OS since 98 SE.

Rolled out != working users

Based on my sample size of 2 (that's my inlaw's desktop and laptop), 100% of computers had issues.

Desktop - broke Excel. An elderly version sure, but was working fine previously. The fix was to install OpenOffice. Also broke his music player and his speakers but I was able to get those working again eventually.

Laptop - has the "desktop" issue and is currently a paperweight. I simply don't have time to do anything more to try and fix it, and I'm hoping that MS might actually get their fucking arses in gear and release a fix. No sign so far, and this seems to affect an awful lot of people. They just don't seem to give a shit.

So in my circle, every computer this update has touched has broken in some way. I've personally had to spend hours trying to fix things. That's my evening/weekend time that I would rather spend doing anything else. Personally I moved to Mac years ago and haven't had any issues with any of them on any update. But because I'm the "expert" in the family (I'm a software engineer but that just means "computer fixer" to any family member) I have to waste my time because of MS's fuck up.

Re: Rolled out != working users

If that is the case then I would reconsider your "expertise" then as you obviously do not know how to configure a Windows PC to work properly! Out of the 8 machines here that I have in the house, only ONE issue has arisen after an update on ONE machine only - Asus AI Suite stopped working but was easily fixed by installing a later version of it. Every other update has gone smooth as silk with no problems. I have to admit that W10 has lowered my workload dramatically as people don't seem to have so many problems like they had with W8 or previous versions. Lucky? Maybe, but then again maybe I know how to configure a W10 machine so it doesn't have problems or use hardware that has good driver support?

Re: Rolled out != working users

"Issue from the last update my system no longer goes to sleep after the allotted time, unless I log out.

With Aprils update, the system defaulted to ENG US keyboard rather then ENG UK it should have been.

then 3rd party utils removed as "they no longer work with this version of windows"

And this is progress....."

Well, the EULA does tell you that Microsoft can do whatever they want with the computer they control and you pay for, so if you waded through the verbiage, they did warn you. They count on the fact that most people are not suspicious or masochistic enough to read a 50 page licence agreement.

Re: Rolled out != working users

This last update was a clusterfuck. Good for business though. More than the normal number of it doesn't start. Completely different group of sufferers. First time I've seen usb hardware so badly incompatible that plugging it in to any machine (even older versions of windows, updated with MS patches) will hang on boot. (I'm guessing that it hangs on loading the usb system, no damage done, but bing able to plug in a relatively small device win10 gives a wait icon, earlier versions show some text just before they would normally switch to full grapical mode, A section of boot that I have never seen before. Its a neat trick)

I swear the upgrade is the old reinstall the os over the top of itself.

Slightly more reliable due to keeping windows SxS information. I didn't notice any useful list of uninstalled programs this time around. But identical hardware, 1 where it worked, one where it failed. What really took the cake for me though was the client who had a glitch in the update which then rolled back blitzing a number of their programs.

Reinstall and rebuild their data, only to have a vendor charge them like a wounded bull to re-install their MSSQL based app, required by their franchise., cause only they can install it (WTF?!?!). Even knowing all the data was available. Ethical my ass.

Yet I would not have expected MSSQL compact to be killed by a windows update, their shitty program yes.

As the feature updates are so badly handled I'm having to go back to recommending full bare metal backups. What a PITA

Re: Rolled out != working users

If that is the case then I would reconsider your "expertise" then as you obviously do not know how to configure a Windows PC to work properly! Out of the 8 machines here that I have in the house, only ONE issue has arisen after an update on ONE machine only - Asus AI Suite stopped working but was easily fixed by installing a later version of it. Every other update has gone smooth as silk with no problems. I have to admit that W10 has lowered my workload dramatically as people don't seem to have so many problems like they had with W8 or previous versions. Lucky? Maybe, but then again maybe I know how to configure a W10 machine so it doesn't have problems or use hardware that has good driver support?

Knob.

I never claimed to have any expertise in fixing Windows 10 Updates, or Windows in general. Neither have I "configured" any of those affected computers (although I'm not sure what you actually mean by "configure". You probably don't know either.). I'm also pretty sure I said quite clearly "I use Macs".

And why should anyone need ANY expertise in order to continue having a working system when MS push out an update?

Re: Rolled out != working users

"Sure, then just throw the printer in the bin as there are no Linux drivers for it (I know, I tried for several days)"

True, that can happen.

Sometimes a generic PCL or postscript driver will get reasonable functionality.

The best way to address this is planning ahead when buying hardware. I just bought a new Brother laser all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax with full Linux support from Brother, drivers available in .rpm or .deb.

Re: Rolled out != working users

"

The best way to address this is planning ahead when buying hardware. I just bought a new Brother laser all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax with full Linux support from Brother, drivers available in .rpm or .deb.

"

One of the main uses for my printer is printing labels onto printable CDs, DVDs and BluRay disks. This requires not only a printer driver that is able to tell the printer that it is printing onto a disk, but also an application that can create suitable print files easily.

Maybe there are such drivers and utilities now available for Linux just as there were for WfW last century, but when I looked last year I could not see any.

Your advice is as useful telling Tiger Woods to use a tennis racquet instead of a golf club, and when he complains that it doesn't work, advise him to plan ahead by changing his preferred sport.

Re: Rolled out != working users

The best way to address this is planning ahead when buying hardware. I just bought a new Brother laser all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax with full Linux support from Brother, drivers available in .rpm or .deb.

The only thing stopping me dead in my tracks at this point is the printer. I have an oldish HP Deskjet 9800 which handles 11X17" paper which is about all I print on it. I have another HP for bog standard which may be OK for that paper. I have yet to find a driver for my Linux box which will handle the 9800 and/or any printer with 11X17. I guess I need to look harder or get super creative?

Re: Rolled out != working users

"But because I'm the "expert" in the family (I'm a software engineer but that just means "computer fixer" to any family member) I have to waste my time because of MS's fuck up."

Try the family on Mint.

A friend of mine did that three years after I suggested it, when his Windows home computer was remotely hacked (He'd been reinstalling every 6 months because of the nasty stuff accumulating as the family members went to dodgy sites, clicked on questionable links, etc.). All of a sudden the cursor started opening stuff, and text started appearing in windows and fields...

He powered off, unplugged from the Internet, and dug out the Linux DVD I'd given him.

Half an hour later he had a configured, working home system, pretty much to taste.

His family was horrified. A month later they wouldn't use the remaining Windows computer if the Linux machine was free.

That was about four years ago, and he hasn't had to reinstall since then.

After reading the Windows 10 EULA - an educational yet unsettling experience, I decided I would never run Windows 10. If you have a new computer, Clonezilla will give you a restorable disk image without ever running Windows, and then you can format the drive... if you ever need the Windows, you will have it, though I've never put one back.

A mess

Windows 10 is a mess. Plain and simple. It breaks as much as it fixes, adds features nobody asked for and get's more and more intrusive and collects more and more telemetry data. Every major release is plagued with bugs because MS have no internal QA testing process worth a sod. You spend a large percetange of your time with a Windows 10 box just patching a rebooting - it's almost continuous. You don't use a Win10 PC anymore for anything productive, you just watch it reboot.

I just find it amusing as well that so many things in Win10 now just beg you to use MS services, or Edge, or Bing. Latest one I saw when I was forced to use Edge before downloading Chrome 'Why search over there (Google), when you can search here (Bing)'. It's just laughable!

50% Complete

Of my two computers running Windows 10, my desktop PC updated with no problems. I was very surprised given the problems I had had successfully completing the previous upgrades. And this is with Avast and Classic Shell installed. No missing desktop issue. Yay!

I have not yet allowed the update on my Laptop. Keeping fingers crossed for when that occurs.

Random Freezing

My home PC updated (an old Dell XPS I7 series 2), gave me some new data siphoning options, which I turned off and then the OS started randomly hanging. Not a nice ctrl+delete recoverable kind of hang, but a mouse pointer works and nothing else kind of hang.

It looks like it's also a known issue with 10.

I guess I have a 10 shun deficit disorder, because I didn't shun the update.

Re: Random Freezing

Sorry to report no problems on 11-year-old machines

Two ancient HP DT's w/core 2 duos both upgraded successfully last week to Spring Creator's Update as well as a 4-yr-old Dell xeon and a 2-yr-old Dell i7. I will admit the xeon required some coaxing (online upgrade failed so had to use a thumbdrive) but canna believe both core 2's sailed through without a hiccough...

Windows 10 update rolled out really fast

Windows 10 update would be really fast considering the end user has no choice but to update. Microsoft does magnanimously allow the end user to 'pause' the update for up to thirty five days. This *is* a one time only 'pause' and 'pause' randomly gets reset back to the default, which is no pause at all.

Re: This update is shit

@ largefile

Statement "perfect for seniors" definitely nonsense. I am older than dirt, myself and this is totally misleading.

Based on largefile's misdirection I defaulted to tablet mode on my desk top and tossed out my MS ergonomic keyboard. You know, the one where they changed the sizes of the keys, positioned them differently, and used dry erase marker to put the letters on the keys.

I immediately found that the tablet touch screen function hadn't enabled. My CRT display was completely unresponsive. Nurse just served up dinner (GUI pablum and chocolate pudding). Now the screen is a mess. Shame on you for making sport of the elderly. This is my primary consumption activity, and I fail to see how a larger icon or Web Browsing would enhance my enjoyment of it.

However, I have to admit that this situation is an improvement relative to the shambles created almost a year ago where an update wiped out the Update and Security function in Settings, disabled my Ethernet connection so that none of my Office 2010 applications would run, and created a situation where any attempt to correct the situation throws one of a number of unspecified system errors.

(OK. I am older than dirt, but I have to admit I thought @largefile was a funny bit.)

And a serious comment. Back in the day there was function that we called the "bathtub curve" that characterized the probability of a system failure--relatively high infant mortality due to manufacturing defects missed in product testing, followed by an extended period or relatively few random failures, eventually followed by a rapid increase in failure rate characteristic of the end of system life.

What we're seeing in IT today has an eerily familiar end-of-useful-life feel to it. Cloud computing and Software as a Service are just dumping everything in the same technological bathtub. In which regard, two words to the wise. Tin whiskers.

Try the LTSB...

If you need to use Windows 10, try the 2016 LTSB version which is the successor to Windows Embedded editions. Current version is based on the 1607 build, I think. It is pretty good, and doesnt include crap like Windows Store, Metro apps, Cortana or Edge. It'll be patched up to 2026 without any out of the blue feature 'improvements'.

Re: Try the LTSB...

Re: Try the LTSB...

@Dan 55

That would be the same Cortana and Edge that MS told W10 users were integral to the OS and could not be removed or disabled? The LTSB is nothing more or less than a tacit admission of failure, one by some accounts forced on MS for the Chinese version.

Re: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

Re: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

"The word fall makes no sense fail does so fail creators it is"

Considering that "fall" is meant to be a synonym for "autumn", and autumn falls on entirely different parts of the year depending on where you are on the planet, not to mention some places only have two seasons (called wet and dry in Darwin at least), yeah "fall" makes no sense if it's trying to refer to a specific time of year. I'll go with "fail' to. Microsoft, creators of fail.

Re: Needs saying!

"So every day more Windows 10 machines have been successfully upgraded to the April 2018 Update than the total number of Linux desktops running in the world."

Amazing what you can do with an effective monopoly, isn't it?

Microsoft puts a lot of effort into financial incentives and commercial threats (sell any other OS and we'll stop selling you Windows) to make sure you can't buy a commodity computer with any other OS installed.

Re: Needs saying!

Microsoft Up To Its Usual Tricks

Last fall, if you went and checked for upgrades manually, you probably saw a notice that there was an upgrade coming but you had to go get it via the Windows Upgrade Assistant if you really wanted it right away.

This spring, check for updates, boom, it starts installing 1803 without any further warning.

Re: Time to roll the dice

One of two down

My former director relies on me to keep his and his wife's PCs going in their home office since his retirement. Retirement was about a year and a half ago and, with the two new laptops they bought at that time for their planned rest and recreation years, I have not had a month without a trip to their house to fix Windows 10.

This last update completely wiped her drive except for a Windows.old.000 folder which I was able to use to restore her documents and treasured photos. She could only boot into the choice of which keyboard type to use, then reboot again to the same screen. I restored her files only after creating an installation media USB stick downloaded earlier in the day from Microsoft. Using the repair option got me to a command prompt for backing up her old folders onto a USB drive. Then I booted with the USB stick again and chose a complete install.

Somehow, the USB stick installer found the original license and got Windows 10 back to its usual self. Reinstalling LIbreOffice and Firefox got her back to what she wanted on the laptop. But it was two nights of my doing this for her after work and going home after midnight.

Fortunately, her chicken pot pie is excellent and her husband keeps the teapot full.

Re: One of two down

Opinion stated as fact (or bad English)

"The speed at which the update has been flung at users reflects perhaps misplaced confidence in Redmond in the quality of the 1803 build"

That's a statement. The word "perhaps" is in the wrong place. You are stating that Microsoft has "perhaps misplaced confidence". I don't know whether you deliberately produced this piece of non-English to attempt to mount a post-truth (Trumpian) defense of a fact that you can't actually prove or whether you just can't speak English.

I didn't get the BSOD and my desktop computer is fine, but it screwed up my laptop. Can't get sound, the start button won't work and if I have to connect using WiFi or Airplane Mode, I am out of luck. Although if I already connected to the host in the past (as with my neighborhood Panera as well as my home network), WiFi works.

Weird. I hope the upcoming patch fixes it. If not, I will have to revert to the previous edition. Unless someone here has a possible solution to try.

Running Great...no problems.

Re: Running Great...no problems.

Me too. I wonder what is causing people to BSOD. Every Win 10 update I have done works without issue: goes in clean and starts up error-free without any B/GSOD ever.

I run VPN (three - two for employer/client), a Virtualbox Linux VM, and a fairly standard set of apps, including a few that are a bit old The one setting I have changed is to disable the driver update. I have an Intel 7260 wireless adapter that is known to be problematic. The Intel drivers for Win 10 just do not seem to work well, so I've kept a MS driver from 2015 that is rock solid.

I've disabled the stuff in Windows that I don't use or like: e,g.,telemetry and Cortana, etc. It's not my intention to debate the virtues of any OS, I just wonder why I don't experience the problems that are reported on this web site.

I had windows 10 for about a year and in that time it crashed so often that I had no choice but to go back to Windows 7.....Windows 7 just works. No messing about . I just switch my PC on and it does it's own thing with no arsing about, no swearing, just smooth and simple.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.... no wait, we need more money, lets invent something called windows 8 and 10 and make people so angry, they'll buy more of our products.

Twice a year please doctor

Not sure what the beef is re 1803 release as Microsoft have publicly committed to xx03 and xx09 Windows releases so they will ship on the last day of those months or heads will roll. Smaller more frequent releases means more Microsoft 365 Business subscriptions - you know it makes sense.

Another mostly bogus posting from The Register.

Apple inspired?

I'm getting reports of massive slow downs, as well as seeing it on several machines, and also anything not microshite being significantly slower than before, browsers especially... Microshite's way of forcing people to use edge more?

This rotten update 'ate' my first and bestist Lenovo laptop computer and only just managed to download to my old Dell. However, I had to completely re-install Win 10 on both laptop's and the Lenovo conked out twice when trying to update. If you only had one computer, you would be absolutely b^$$£&£%.

I don't look forward to any Windows updates now, and I cannot be the only one? My laptop was doing some weird stuff yesterday evening as well, despite there didn't appear to be any updates. However, 'Please wait' came and went a few times along with a long delay in restarting.

Are we all just Test Monkey's for Microsoft as they see what the updates actually do? My Brightness still varies on its own on both laptops now, despite Microsoft denying their upgrades didn't affect it. Really, really fed up with all this …………...

TBH I w ant to move to Linux

TBH I am sick and tired of the Windows OS.

1. It feels like a massive spyware operation. I do not want my computer listening to my microphone. I do not need to give my computer "voice commands" - why would I need to do that? So much investment in something that nobody wants... apart from the intelligence services of course, I bet they are recording everything and sending it back as "telemetry" data.

2. Even if MS are not a massive spy operation in cahoots with the governments, like Google and Facebook and Twitter and Amazon etc... likely are, all my computer ever does is updates. Its like not a day goes by without some update occurring.

The BIOS, the OS, the applications.

3. I suspect strongly that Windows OS has got a "slow down with age" funciton written into it, purposefully, in order to create a need for upgrades - just like Apple have been caught red-handed doing.

4. MS do not listen ever to the wishes of their customers. They treat their users like garbage. Only a tiny fraction of us want "voice control" of our computer. yes, it looks cool on the Star Ship Enterprise, but honestly, the actual useful use cases are limited.

5. WTF is the Windows OS doing when you turn on your computer? It grinds the disk for ages and ages. Like, are you kidding me? is that a joke? You seriously cannot make the computer come on, without still grinding the disk in the background so much that the machine is unusable, within 10 seconds? In 2018? Are you kidding me?

6. WTF is Windows doing when you install a program. How can it possibly take so long?

7. Why so many updates?

8. Why force us to do the updates?

Some will say "muh, security". Hmm, if you have that many holes then perhaps your fundamental approach is incorrect and you are just patching holes in cardboard bucket.

The only reason I do not move to Linux is the effort required. But if MS keep going as they are, then I will just make the leap. I have pretty much had it with Windows TBH.